Twins
by afanoflife
Summary: Alec comes to Camelot to visit his brother that he hasn't seen in a long time.
1. Arrival

**This is my first attempt at writing a story with any sort of length to it. I hope you all enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Merlin_.**

Alec walked through the gates of Camelot, glad that he had finally reached his destination. His blue eyes moved constantly, taking in the new surroundings. In the distance, he saw the castle and proceeded to walk towards it. As he walked, he attempted to smooth down his raven black hair. It was a habit of his he did when he was nervous. He had plenty of reason to be nervous. He was, after all, attracting the stares of the townspeople.

Doing his best to ignore the stares, Alec turned his thoughts to his reason for being in Camelot. He was excited. It had been a long time since he had seen Merlin, his brother, and he was finally going to get the chance to see him. Ealdor had been lonely without Merlin. Alec didn't have many friends, making Merlin's absence more noticeable.

_I'll be able to see him soon_, Alec thought. _I just have to find him first_. With that thought in mind, Alec entered the castle. He chose a random corridor and walked down it. When he saw a guard, he approached and asked, "Can you tell me where the court physician can be found?"

The guard raised an eyebrow at him. "You would think after all this time, you wouldn't get lost in the castle anymore, Merlin," the guard said, but he pointed towards the left anyway.

For a moment, Alec was confused. The man had just called him by his brother's name. Suddenly, he let out a little laugh. _Of course! The man would have no way of knowing that Merlin had a twin brother. _He laughed again and told the guard, "One of these days I'll learn." He walked away in the direction the man had indicated.

Finally, Alec found himself outside the court physician's chambers. Slowly, he opened the door and stepped inside. Standing in the middle of the room was an old man. Alec assumed he was Gaius based on the description his mother had given him. "Hello. I'm-" but Alec wasn't allowed to finish.

"Merlin! There you are. It's about time you showed up. I need you to start cleaning out the leech tank. The thing is an absolute mess. Why you didn't do it yesterday is beyond me," Gaius said. The man looked at Alec expectantly. Alec didn't move. Sighing, the old man walked forward and grabbed Alec's arm.

Alec tried to tell the man that he had him confused with someone else, but Gaius wouldn't let him say anything. He was led to an extremely gross looking tank. It was covered in all sorts of unidentifiable matter. _Gaius doesn't really expect me to clean that, does he? It's gross! _"Gaius, I need to tell-" but he was once again cut off.

"I don't want to hear any excuses, Merlin. Now, take this rag and start cleaning. There's a bucket of water there on the floor." With that, Gaius walked away.

Alec stared at the tank before dunking the rag in the water. _I might as well start. As long as Gaius thinks I'm Merlin I won't be able to get out of cleaning it. Besides, it's something nice I can do for my brother._

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><p>Alec wasn't eve half way done, but he was already disgusted with the task. He was covered in stuff that he couldn't identify, and he had pulled more than a few leeches off of his arms and face. Sighing, he was about to get started again when the door banged open.<p>

Alec smiled to himself when he heard Gaius say, "Merlin, I told you to get that leech tank cleaned." Then a few seconds later, Gaius exclaimed, "Wait! You're cleaning it out right now, but that's impossible. You're standing right in front of me. If you're there, who's cleaning out my leech tank?"

Feeling sorry for the man, Alec stood up and walked over to the two men. "Hello, Merlin. It's been a while." Merlin and Alec stared at each other for a few seconds before they both burst into laughter.

Merlin managed to quit laughing first and said, "Gaius, I would like to introduce you to Alec, my twin brother." With wide eyes, Gaius looked between the two young men and promptly fainted.

_This is going to be an interesting visit if all of Merlin's friends respond the same way_, Alec thought to himself.


	2. Talk

**Here's the next chapter. There is not much to it. I thought there should be a small chapter that shows Merlin and Alec talking, which is why it is so short. The next chapter should be much better.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Merlin._**

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><p>It was late at night. Alec and Merlin were sitting together in Merlin's room, catching up on their lives. "What have you been doing, Alec?" Merlin asked.<p>

Alec remained silent for a moment before replying, "Not much of anything. I've just been doing the usual."

"Oh, come on! Something exciting has to have happened since I've been gone," responded Merlin.

Sighing, Alec said, "Really, nothing much has happened. Without you there messing things up, life has been rather boring." The two sat in silence for a while. Out of nowhere Alec asked, "Does anyone know about your…magic?"

Merlin stared into space for a moment, and then replied, "A few people know. Gaius knows. I kind of saved his life the first time I saw him. There's another man, Lancelot, who knows. He learned by accident as well. I enchanted his lance in order to kill a griffin that was attacking people."

"Hmm…I always knew you were horrible at keeping secrets. I'm guessing the prince doesn't know of your little secret?" Alec asked.

Merlin snorted. "Of course he doesn't. Arthur cannot know that I have magic, at least not yet. One day, maybe when Uther is gone and Arthur can be his own man, I'll tell him."

With that statement the two boys remained in silence for a long time. Each was lost in their thoughts. Merlin was thinking about his magic and the added dangers it brought to his life. Alec's thoughts revolved around what his brother's life must be like, constantly having to hide who he was to the people around him.

Eventually the two boys became tired. They dressed for bed and lay down. Each drifted off to sleep, heads filled with thoughts of what the next day would bring them.


	3. Confusion

**I to mentioned in The Day After that I was going to upload this on Friday, but I changed my mind.**

**Alec isn't mentioned much in this chapter, but don't worry. He'll be in the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Merlin_.**

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><p>Merlin's morning had started out normal, but didn't stay that way. He had managed to get up early enough to eat breakfast with his brother and Gaius. Time had gotten away from him, so he had arrived at Arthur's chambers running slightly late. He had woken the prince up with a nice, friendly greeting, but all he received was a pillow to the face. He had served the prince his breakfast, got his clothes ready, and picked the dirty laundry up off the floor. However, something must have happened to the prince because he was in a very bad mood. Unfortunately for Merlin, he was Arthur's outlet.<p>

That is how Merlin found himself mucking out the stables. He sighed as he continued to work. He would rather be inside; talking with Alec, but that was not possible. Instead, he had to spend his morning mucking out the stables and smelling like a horse.

While he was busy working, he heard the door to the stables open. Footsteps could be heard approaching him. Looking up, Merlin saw the prince walking towards him. Merlin let out a small groan. Arthur was still very angry looking. His observations were proved correct a few seconds later.

"Good God, _Mer_lin. Aren't you finished with this yet? You've had more than enough time," the prince said.

Merlin glared at the man. He had had hardly any time to complete this particular chore. "As you can see, _Sire_, I'm still working. Maybe if you left me alone and stopped taking out all of your anger out on me, I'd actually be able to get all my chores done in a decent amount of time."

Arthur's eyes had narrowed as he glared at him. However, the prince did not say anything in reply. He just turned around and walked through the stable doors.

_I wonder what his problem is today_, thought Merlin.

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><p>Arthur walked through the doors of the stable. He knew he had been mean to Merlin that morning, but he could not bring himself to apologize. He was too annoyed with his father at the moment.<p>

The night before, he had been summoned by his father. His father had wanted to talk with him about something. Their talk had quickly turned into an argument. Their conversation had started out normal. They had talked about his training with the knights and the new horse he had been given. The conversation, however, had soon been turned in a different direction.

Uther, once again, had brought up the subject of marriage. According to his father, it was high time that he found himself a wife. Because of this, Uther had invited one of his closest friends and his daughter to Camelot.

Arthur told his father in no uncertain terms that he would not consider marriage to anyone he did not love. He and his father had gone back and forth on the subject, each getting angrier by the minute. The argument had continued to escalate until Uther had yelled at him to get out of his sight. Arthur had left his father's presence in a really bad mood. That bad mood had carried over into the next day.

Currently, Arthur was on his way to see Gaius. His head felt like it was about to split open. The pain was so intense that he would even prefer one of the court physician's disgusting headache remedies.

Reaching the door to Gaius' chambers, Arthur paused. He wanted to get his emotions under control before he went. Once this was somewhat accomplished, he pushed open the door. Looking inside, he suddenly paused. There, sitting in front of him at Gaius' table, was none other than Merlin. But that was impossible. He had just left Merlin at the stables. There was no possible way he could have reached Gaius and cleaned up in the time it took Arthur to get there.

Stepping further inside, Arthur said, "Merlin?"

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><p><strong>Well, there you go! I hoped you enjoyed this chapter.<strong>


	4. Explanation

**This chapter is a celebration chapter because _Merlin _Season 4 is finally strarting in America! Tonight cannot come soon enough in my opinion.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Merlin_. **

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><p>Alec awoke early in the morning, slightly confused about his surroundings. It took him a minute to remember that he was in Camelot, visiting his brother. Looking over at his brother's bed, he noticed that Merlin was not currently in the room. Getting up, Alec got dressed and walked into Gaius' workshop.<p>

He walked over to the table and sad down across from Merlin. His brother was staring at his breakfast, looking a little tired. Deciding that his brother needed to be woken up a bit, Alec said, "You know, Merlin, your room is an absolute mess. What would Mother say if she knew?"

Merlin's head shot up. "It's not _that_ bad."

Alec raised an eyebrow. "Not that bad, you say? Your room is cluttered with a bunch of junk!"

His brother chose not to reply. Instead, Merlin picked up a piece of bread on the table and casually threw it at his head.

"What was that for?" Alec asked.

Shrugging his shoulders, Merlin replied, "You shouldn't insult my room. Anyway, what are you planning on doing today?"

Thinking for a moment, Alec answered, "I don't really know. I'll probably just stay around here and help Gaius or something."

As Alec said his comment, the aforementioned man walked into the room. When he noticed the two young men sitting at the table, he stopped. "Merlin, shouldn't you be in the prince's chamber by now? If you don't hurry, you're going to be late." Alec laughed when he saw the look on Merlin's face. Without saying good-bye, Merlin jumped up from the table and ran out of the room.

"That boy…he never pays attention to what's going on around him…" Alec heard Gaius mumble to himself.

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><p>For Alec, his morning was spent peacefully. When he was able to, he helped Gaius with some of his work. At other times, he explored Gaius' workshop. The place was completely filled with books, jars, herbs, and other random items. At one point during the morning, Alec even ventured back into Merlin's room. Even though he had been teasing Merlin earlier, his comment was still valid. <em>For as long as I can remember, Merlin has never been good at keeping his area of the house clean. I've always been the clean one and he's always been the messy one, <em>Alec thought to himself. Deciding to surprise his brother, Alec spent some time cleaning the room.

After finishing with Merlin's room, Alec sat back down at the table. He ended up filling in Gaius about what had been going on Ealdor. Gaius and he were so consumed by their conversation that they didn't notice someone entering the room. They didn't stop talking until they heard a voice say, "Merlin?" Both Gaius and Alec turned around at the sound of the name. Alec was surprised to see the prince standing in the room, looking very confused.

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><p>When the men at the table turned around, Arthur just stared at them in confusion. Gaius was the first to speak to him. "Sire, Merlin isn't here right now." Arthur continued to stare at Gaius.<p>

_How can he tell me Merlin isn't here, when he is obviously sitting right in front of me? Maybe it's just his old age affecting his mind or something_, Arthur thought. "Don't tell me he isn't here! He's sitting right in front of me!" Arthur said, gesturing his hand towards the table. "You're supposed to be mucking out the stables. Wait, forget that for the moment. How did you even get here before me? I just left you not that long ago. There's no way you could get here before me!"

The man he assumed to be Merlin looked completely shocked by his outburst. "Umm…Sire, my name isn't Merlin. It's Alec. I'm his twin."

Arthur burst out laughing. "I'm not stupid, _Mer_lin. Just answer the questions and stop trying to give me excuses."

"What question am I supposed to be answering?" Arthur whirled around at the sound of the voice. There, standing behind him, was _another _Merlin. His mouth dropped open. He stood there, between the two Merlins, looking back and forth between them. He was completely confused.

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><p>Merlin was tired. He was dirty and smelled like horses. He was just about to walk through the door to Gaius' chambers, when he heard the sound of the prince's voice through the door. "I'm not stupid, <em>Mer<em>lin. Just answer the questions and stop trying to give me excuses." Worried about what he would find inside, Merlin pushed open the door and stepped into the room.

"What question am I supposed to be answering?" Merlin asked. He was surprised when the prince whirled around. He was even more surprised when the man's mouth dropped open. Looking around, Merlin quickly realized what the problem was. Merlin chuckled to himself.

A smile appeared on his face as he said, "Arthur, allow me to introduce you to my _identical twin_, Alec."

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><p><strong>Well, another chapter is now complete. I hope you enjoyed this one. Now, I'm off to wait for the new season of <em>Merlin <em>(I just have to make it through a day of school first).**


	5. A Story and Some Fun

**This is the last chapter of the story. I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you have all enjoyed it. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to review this story. Your reviews meant a lot to me. Thank you to the people who added me to their favorite stories and author's list, and put me on author and story alert!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Merlin_.**

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><p>"Arthur, allow me to introduce my <em>identic<em>_al twin_, Alec."

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><p>Merlin walked over to Alec and put his arms around his brother's shoulders. The look on the prince's face was absolutely priceless.<p>

"Your…identical twin?" repeated Arthur.

Merlin looked at Arthur and raised his eyebrow. "Who else did you think this was? He's most certainly not my sister, so that means he's my brother. We were born on the exact same day, so that makes him my twin."

In the background, Gaius chuckled. "Sire, Alec came to visit his brother yesterday. Unfortunately, the two haven't been able to see much of each other here recently."

"Of course. It's just confusing seeing two Merlins standing right next to each other." Arthur turned his body to face Merlin and Alec. "You both look exactly alike. You have the same haircuts, same hair color, and the same eye color. Your voices sound almost exactly the same. Heck, you even dress alike! The only noticeable difference between you two is that Merlin is wearing that scarf around his neck and Alec isn't. How your mother managed to tell you two apart is beyond me."

Merlin had to smile to himself. For the first part of his and Alec's lives, their mother had had a terrible time trying to tell them apart. He was going to respond to Arthur, but Alec started talking first.

"Our mother did have a terrible time telling us apart, but she eventually solved that problem. Have you ever seen Merlin without his scarf around his neck?" Alec waited for Arthur to give an answer. When the prince nodded his head, Alec continued to speak. "When we were younger, Merlin was given his first scarf on our birthday. He's worn one ever since. It's made it easier for other people to tell us apart."

"So that's why you wear that ridiculous thing around your neck? I've always wondered why you would choose to wear it," Arthur said.

Merlin looked offended by Arthur's comment. "My scarf is not ridiculous!"

"Whatever you say, Merlin," the prince replied. The room went quiet as the prince continued to look back and forth between the two men. Eventually, a large smile appeared on Arthur's face.

Merlin was a little worried. "What are you smiling about, Arthur?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering…how would you feel about playing a small prank on the knights and Gwen?" Arthur answered.

A smile that was even larger than Arthur's appeared on Merlin's face. He looked to the side and saw the exact same smile plastered across Alec's face. "Are you up for some fun?"

"Of course I am! This is going to be just like old times!" Alec said. Together, the three men ran out of the room, talking about the pranks they could play on the people of Camelot.

As Merlin left the room, he heard Gaius mutter to himself, "What am I going to do with those boys?"

The rest of the day was spent terrorizing the whole of Camelot.


End file.
